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The sight of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Sajid Javid bopping to Abba songs on a dancefloor largely populated by millennials had rung alarms in Downing Street long before young Tory staffer Carrie Symonds was linked to the former foreign secretary this week.

Eyebrows were raised back in March when social media posts revealed the trio of cabinet heavyweights had attended her alcohol-fuelled 30th birthday bash, with Johnson and Gove even rumoured to have delivered gushing speeches at the party at her family home in North London.

“The feeling inside Number 10 at the time was very much along the lines of: ‘What on earth were they doing there?’” said one former Downing Street aide. “Did they regularly...